Italian Girl Names for Your Little Bambina

Whether you want to honor your family’s heritage, or just enjoy their melodic and feminine style, Italian girl names are a popular choice both in the U.S. and abroad.

You can stick with the Italian theme whether you’re looking for a more popular name like Sofia or Mia, or a stand-out name like Lorenza or Maddalena.

Or, be even more authentic by choosing a name that is currently popular for baby girls in Italy but is nowhere to be found here across the pond (yet!). Ginevra, anyone?

Celebrities who have used Italian girl names

Italian names are a favorite among celebrities, including:

Salma Hayek with Valentina

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with Serafina

Matt Damon went with Italian names for all his girls: Isabella, Gia, and Stella

Mario Lopez also has a daughter named Gia (short form of Giovanna/Gianna)

Claudia Schiffer’s daughter Cosima

Kevin Jonas went with an Italian double-header for his baby girl Valentina Angelina

Pronounciation considerations

Keep in mind that Italian pronunciation is different than English (if you are familiar with vowel sounds in Spanish, they are similar in Italian). For example Camilla could be pronounce with a short “I” sound in English, but in Italian it’s said “Cah-MEE-la”.

Another rule of thumb in Italian is that the letter C followed by an e or i makes the C pronounced “ch”. So Marcella is pronounced “Mar-CHEL-la”, not “Mar-SEL-la”.

Lastly, the letter combination “Gi” is the equivalent the English letter “J”. So Giulia is essentially Julia, and Gianna pronounced “Ji-ahn-na”.

Which of these Italian girl names is YOUR favorite? Let us know in the comments!

When naming our second daughter, we wanted to use family names and Carmela was all over our family tree. We decided to put a little spin on it and use the diminutive “Carmelina” for her middle name. Another fun option that works with a lot of Italian names!